Like many, Ellen's love of mysteries began in childhood when she discovered Sherlock Holmes. Spellbound by Basil Rathbone, she pulled the family Complete Works Of from the bookshelf, and was hooked. Other early favorites were Nero Wolfe (read them all by the age of 18) and Josephine Tey. Then she discovered Dorothy L. Sayers and all bets were off.

She developed her interest in science fiction in her late teens, drawn immediately to the heavy hitters of the times: Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, Walter M. Miller, and above all Ursula K. LeGuin. Then came A.E. Van Vogt, Madeleine L'Engle, Frederik Pohl, and the wonderful Zenna Henderson. These are the authors that most inform her work, because in the end, it's who you read as a child that makes you who you are.

Ellen lives for eight months of the year in an off-grid cabin in Upstate New York. She migrates to Florida in the winter.